


Over Under

by Allekha



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Hair Braiding, M/M, Post-Canon, Unresolved Sexual Tension
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-28
Updated: 2018-03-28
Packaged: 2019-04-14 06:10:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,476
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14129772
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Allekha/pseuds/Allekha
Summary: When Lilia is sick and unable to braid Yuri's hair for a competition, Victor insists on doing it himself. Which would be fine, maybe, except Yuri knows that Victor treats playing with hair like a sign of affection.





	Over Under

"Yura," Victor said in his most disapproving voice, "your hair is a _mess_."  
  
Yuri scowled back at him. It wasn't his fault; Lilia was sick with the flu, so he'd been forced to try doing his hair himself this competition. He could braid, but the fancy stuff she'd decided on had turned out to be nigh-impossible to do by himself – he couldn't see what he was doing, and he had no idea how he was supposed to move his fingers. He'd given up halfway through when he'd hit a point that looked okay. "It's _fine_."  
  
"It's not. Come here, I'll fix it for you." Victor sat on the nearest bench and patted the wood beside him. Yuri rolled his eyes, but went to join him. They had time; Victor was here for Yuuri's sake, not his own, and there were still several groups to go before either of them would get to skate. "Where's your comb and brush?"  
  
"In my bag."  
  
Victor went to get them for him before he started pulling apart Yuri's own attempt at hairstyling. He pulled the elastics off and onto his wrist, and carefully undid the braids. Yuri tried not to stiffen when Victor began to comb his hair out, using just the right amount of pressure: not so much that it hurt, but not so little that he didn't catch every layer of hair. His mother had never managed the right balance when he was a kid.  
  
It was nice, actually. But Yuri knew Victor had a _thing_ about hair.  
  
Yuri hadn't picked up on it for a long while. It was only natural for Victor to fuss over his dog's fur, after all, always running his fingers through her curls and smoothing them down, making sure she looked neat. Yuri was the same with Potya; he liked taking a few minutes at the end of the day to comb her long fur, making sure there were no knots in it, smiling at her when she pushed her head into the bristles.  
  
And it was one thing for Victor to help Georgi that one time with that wild hairstyle he'd wanted to try for his program. And for Victor to comb Yuuri's hair back for him before _Onsen on Ice_ and, presumably, other competitions. Victor was all image and aesthetics. It made sense.  
  
Yuri had only started to really clue in when he'd caught Victor smoothing down Yakov's frazzled hair, or what was left of it, when he'd fallen asleep at an airport during a long layover. Victor had been smiling, a soft little thing, and his touch had been so gentle that Yakov hadn't woken up at all.  
  
And now it was Yuri's hair that he was brushing smooth. Because he liked it when things looked pretty. Definitely.  
  
He braided quickly, without tugging too hard on the strands, and Yuri went to look at it in the wall mirror as soon as he was finished. It looked just as though it was Lilia who had done it. No frizzies or anything. Yuri couldn't help but stare a little.  
  
"Why are you so surprised?" Victor asked, smiling from behind his shoulder. "Lilia taught me when I still had long hair." He reached out to grasp the end of one of the longer, loose strands between his fingertips. "Yours is really nice to work with. And it suits you."  
  
He pulled away. "It's not like I had a choice about it." He preferred it when people complimented him on things he did. He'd done fuck-all to have blond hair or big green eyes; he'd poured his soul into those raised-arm jumps ( _third position, Yura, you are not a helicopter_ ) and the layback spin Victor had insisted he try for this program ( _hold that first position a beat longer, you're not getting the full rotations in_ ).  
  
"Not just the color," Victor said. "It's nice that you're growing it out. You should let me play with it sometime."  
  
"Yeah, right," Yuri said, but he still dragged Victor away from Yuuri a couple of days later to do his hair for his free skate. This style was less complicated, but Yuri didn't feel like breaking his wrists trying to get it put together. And it was supposed to have a few little jewels glinting from the braids, red to match with his costume and contrast against his hair, which would be easier for someone else to work in.  
  
Victor braided patiently, taking the time to smooth the strands down as he crossed them over, and undoing one portion when he didn't quite get all the hairs off of Yuri's neck. Yuri watched him in the mirror. It was always something to be the center of Victor's attention. Irritating, sometimes. Yuri couldn't help himself from wanting it anyway.  
  
Finally, everything was in place. Victor paused when he was done, looking at Yuri's hair. Admiring his handiwork, Yuri guessed.  
  
"Victor," called Yuuri, but whatever it was that he had to say died as he approached them. Now he was staring at Yuri, too. He sat up a little straighter. "Wow," Yuuri said after a long moment. "That looks really good, Yuri."  
  
"Doesn't it?" Yuri couldn't see, but he could hear Victor beaming. "See, having it up like this makes his neck look so long, especially with this—"  
  
He drew a hand down the back of Yuri's neck. Down to where his costume was low-cut in the back. Yuri wanted to flinch away from the touch – why did that feel like that, the light brush of his fingers – but there was nowhere to flinch _to_. He was sitting on the edge of the bench already.  
  
Victor's hand lingered. Yuri didn't hear what he was saying over the sudden thump of his heartbeat in his ears. He swallowed against the sound; Victor didn't move his hand.  
  
Until he did. So he could get up, and go deal with whatever it was that Yuuri needed. They both left with smiles for him; he managed a tiny wave back. He could still feel the heat of Victor's touch on his neck.  
  
For his exhibition, Yuri had intended to just leave his hair down. It would be tangled afterward – he was now well-aware of how much time Victor must have spent with a comb as a teenager – but it would look awesome, so it was worth it.  
  
Victor showed up anyway. Yuri didn't notice him at first – he was still sulking over his bronze (losing gold to Yuuri was a pain but at least understandable; losing silver to JJ was just infuriating) and didn't look up until Victor tugged on the end of his hair. "I'm not doing anything to it," he said.  
  
"I thought it might be nice to put a few little braids in," Victor said. "You know. Like the vikings in movies. Don't you think that would look good with your music?"  
  
Yuri thought about it, imagining a couple of tiny braids lining the loose strands. "Yeah, okay," he said. Not all of Victor's ideas were dumb.  
  
Victor had brought the brush and the elastics this time. He chattered away as he braided. "You've got too much eyeliner on. Are you taking makeup lessons from Georgi?"  
  
He had, a couple of times. "It looks great, thanks." He liked the heavy effect of all the black, the sharp edges he'd managed to achieve after a long struggle with the brush.  
  
Victor clicked his tongue. Yuri scoffed at him. They fell into silence as Victor finished the last braid. "There," he said. "How does it look?"  
  
Yuri turned his head back and forth in the mirror. It mostly looked fine, and the effect was as cool as he'd hoped it would be. Maybe it would help keep the strands out of his eyes a little bit, too. "That one's kind of weird."  
  
"Mm. This one? Yeah, it's too far back. Hold on." He took the elastic off, careful not to take any of Yuri's hair with it, and undid the braid. Yuri watched their reflection as he started the new one, how his hands turned and turned in the familiar over-over-over pattern. "That's better," he said when he was done.  
  
Victor didn't move away as Yuri inspected himself in the mirror. In fact, when they stood to return to waiting with everyone else, he draped an arm over the top of his shoulder. It didn't matter that there were two layers of fabric, jacket and costume, between his skin and Yuri's; Yuri could feel his body heat anyway. Yuri tried to shrug his hand off, but Victor just moved it further down. He insisted on smoothing Yuri's hair down one last time, too, right before he skated out.  
  
Yuri didn't take the braids out until the next morning. No matter how much he combed his hair, the crimped waves stayed.

**Author's Note:**

> Written for a [kink meme prompt](https://yurionicekink.dreamwidth.org/881.html?thread=237425#cmt237425): "Victor shows affection by fussing over someone's hair (or fur, in Makkachin's case). At some point, he began fussing over Yuri's hair too." Been a busy couple of weeks for me, but I couldn't resist a hair braiding prompt.
> 
> Also, apparently ballet positions are numbered differently in Russia than what I learned. The things you learn when researching for fanfic. (Third position here = fifth position in the French system, or arms rounded above the head.)


End file.
